Contents

Introduction

The article seems to be a labor of love by Walter627, aka Walter of CNCZone.com. The wiki-bureaucrats and style-guide enforcers are critiquing the hell out of it, naturally, but I don't think they've scared him off yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Walter627

Long and Detailed Discussion

Notes

Epoxy granite is a novel material being developed as an alternative material for precision machine tool bases. Precision granite castings, also known as synthetic granite, epoxygranite or polymer concrete, are used to replace cast iron and steel for superior vibration damping, better performance, longer tool life and lower assembly cost.

Machine Tool Base

Machine tools and other high-precision machines rely upon high stiffness, long-term stability, and excellent damping characteristics of the base material for their static and dynamic performance. The most widely used materials for these structures are cast iron, welded steel fabrications, and natural granite. Due to the lack of long-term stability and very poor damping properties, steel fabricated structures are seldom used where high precision is required. Good-quality cast iron that is stress-relieved and annealed will give the structure dimensional stability, and can be cast into complex shapes, but needs an expensive machining process to form precision surfaces after casting.

Good-quality natural granite is becoming more and more difficult to find, but has a higher damping capacity than cast iron. Again, as with cast iron, the machining of natural granite is labour intensive and expensive.

Process

Precision granite castings are produced by mixing granite aggregates (which are crushed, washed, and dried) with an epoxy resin system at ambient temperature (i.e., cold curing process). Quartz aggregate filler can also be used in the composition. Vibratory compaction during the molding process tightly packs the aggregate together.

Aggregate.jpg

Aggregate

Mixing 1.jpg

Mixing 1

Mixing 2.jpg

Mixing 2

Mixing 4.jpg

Mixing 3

Threaded inserts, steel plates, and coolant pipes can be cast-in during the casting process. To achieve an even higher degree of versatility, linear rails, ground slide-ways and motor mounts can be replicated or grouted-in to the ultimate accuracy, therefore eliminating the need for any post-cast machining. The surface finish of a precision granite casting is as good as the mould surface, and in many instances painting is not necessary.

Epoxy granite material has an internal damping factor up to ten times better than cast iron, up to three times better than natural granite, and up to thirty times better than steel fabricated structure. It is more cost-effective, unaffected by coolants, has excellent long-term stability, improved thermal stability, high torsional and dynamic stiffness, excellent noise absorption, and it's low exothermic curing property aids toward negligible internal stresses.

Assembly time is reduced by incorporating multiple components into one casting.

Does not require a uniform wall thickness, allowing for greater design flexibility of your base.

Chemical resistance to most common solvents, acids, alkalis, and cutting fluids.

Does not require painting.

Composite has a density approximately the same as aluminum (but pieces are thicker to achieve equivalent strength).

The composite polymer concrete casting process uses much less energy than metallic castings. Polymer cast resins use very little energy to produce, and the casting process is done at room temperature.

Avoid

Thin sections (<1").

High tensile loading.

Shock loading.

Tapped holes too close to the edge.

History

Although new to many machine tool builders, especially those in the United States, the composite base has been available in Europe for several years. Fritz Studer AG of Switzerland first came up with its Granitan S-100 technology in the early 1970s. The Granitan base is a mixture of reactable epoxy-resin binder developed by Ciba-Geigy Ltd., Switzerland, and granite or gravel. Granitan produced with sand and gravel was developed specifically for the requirements of machine structure manufacturing. Studer has also been selling licenses for its technology. So far, between 20 and 30 companies worldwide have purchased such licenses, including six U.S machine tool builders.